You can also say it benefits the artist because it makes it easier to listen to them, which incentivises people to give them money to support them. This is more or less the entire model of Bandcamp.
Right, and Bandcamp is probably the most pro-artist of the major music platforms, I would say. The project also benefits the artist but creating an infrastructure not controlled by Youtube or Soundcloud.
But there's no evidence it's factually correct.
And Bandcamp's model is based on selling tracks and albums with free previews, which is entirely different to free listening.